Do What You Must Do and Do It Well

Dear Google,

It's your turn. I've bashed Microsoft for this, and now I'm going to bash you, based on your new and exciting desire to become all things to all people.

Why can't you just do one thing well?

Seriously, did the world really need yet another operating system, or browser? Did the world need yet another email provider? In point of fact, what the world needs from you is a decent search engine.

But no, that wouldn't be growth. I'll admit, I like certain other of your offerings. I'm using one right now. But really, innovation in searching technology would be nice, rather than, like certain other companies whose initials are M.S. (well, not really, because Microsoft should only have the initial "M."), spreading yourself over everything, trying to make everyone use your products for every purpose... branding life, as it were.

It's exactly what I don't like about Macs; it's all Mac. Obviously, that's not totally true, nor is it true that Google or Microsoft will do everything... yet. And I understand the appeal of getting all your services from one company which, one assumes, would make its various services play nicely together (but that assumption is repeatedly challenged by reality). But really, what happened to doing one thing and doing it well? It doesn't have to be "one" thing, but finding one's niche, so to speak, rather than becoming a behemoth, spanning everything but never making any one thing quite as well as one might if one simply concentrated on a limited subset of "all things."

Basically, Google, your "one thing" was search, which then could reasonably grow to encompass a certain subset of the web experience. But an operating system? You'll be making processors next.

Love,

Someone who casually quotes Bob Dylan